Luigi Mascherpa

Luigi Mascherpa (15 April 1893-24 May 1944) was a Rear Admiral of the Regia Marina of Italy during World War II.

Biography
Luigi Mascherpa was born on 15 April 1893 in Genoa, Liguria, Italy. He served in the Regia Marina as a floatplane pilot during World War I, and he became the aide of the Italian naval commander in Albania at the war's end. In October 1918, he took part in the Bombardment of Durazzo, forcing Austria-Hungary to evacuate the city. During the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, he led auxiliary ships, and he became the commander of the Taranto Naval Barracks in 1936. In April 1942, with the rank of Captain, he was given command of the Leros garrison, and he assumed command of all Italian forces in the Dodecanese after the fall of Rhodes to Germany in 1943. Mascherpa decided to work with the United Kingdom to combat the German occupation of the Dodecanese islands after the Italy-Allied Powers armistice of September 1943, but he was captured when the British invasion of the Dodecanese failed. He was sent to the Oflag XXI-C POW camp in Poland before being sent back to Italy, and he was executed in Parma alongside Admiral Inigo Campioni.